Sub and Amp, £150 Budget!

-westy-

-westy-

-westy-

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Hi,

A friend of mine is looking for a sub and amp - she's already bought a set of front components.

The budget is around £150, preferably less. Now, a few questions:

Is it best to amp the front components as well as the sub? and where would be an ideal place to mount the amp? under the drivers seat?

Would any particular cable be appropriate for this as well? I'll be fitting it for her, so it can't be too complicated, but i'm generally alright with wiring. Would the cables need to be routed through the car, i.e under the trim?

Sorry if that sounds a bit garbled, its late :o

Thanks!
 
I couldnt advise you on what to buy, but yes its best to amp the components too.

You can put an amp under the seats, but theres no way I would personally do it, those things get hot, theres a good chance it would overheat, and who knows, maybe cause a fire. My personal preference would be to mount it in the boot, on the back of the back seats, that way its out of the way and not taking up luggage space.

As for cabling, get an amp cabling kit its easiest. You will need a decent gauge wire to feed the amp, if you have plans for putting in another/more powerful amp later on then it would be worth buying thicker cable than you need to save pulling the trim out again in future to upgrade. Maybe you know this but I ought to mention it anyway, probably the first rule of installing ICE is to put a fuse on your amp wire as close to the battery as you can.
 
£150 for an amp for front components as well as a sub isnt enough.
You would need 2 amps in the end (one to power the components and 1 to power the sub). You might be able to buy a 4 channel amp but at this price it wouldnt be that good.
I'd suggest saving more money so she'll be able to buy a decent sub and box as well as a decent 4 channel amp.
Amp wiring is fairly simple, all you need is a power cable (with an in-line fuse and holder (must be within 30cm of battery)), set of RCA cables, remote turn-on cable and a earth cable.
I would suggest buying a 4 guage wiring kit so if she happens to upgrade the sound system further then the cabling will be able to handle it.
Yeah, it's a case of pulling back trim to put cabling though. It's damn time consuming but you have to spend a decent amount of time to get a good job done on it.
It also helps to know where the grommet is on the firewall between the cabin and engine bay, this saves you hunting around for one or worse drilling one :|
 
I recently bought a set including a JBL GTO75.4 amp, and a JBL GTO1202D sub in a box. It also included a pair of 6x9 speakers but I sold them on ebay. The set cost £210 inc postage, and after I deduct the £30 I got for the 6x9s it works out as £180.

I dont think its a competitor so here's the link
 
£150 is enought for an amp and sub - Atleast it should be - if you buy second hand.

I got 2 rockford fosgate amps (1 mono and 1 stereo), a rockford fosgate punch sub (in a custom £50 sealed box) and a set of genesis audiophile 16 componants for £360 - when you consider all these together, brand new are worth over £800 you should be able to manage 1 amp and a set of comps for £150.

About the amp mounting, I've mounted my stereo amp under my passenger seat and even at full volume (after being scoped) for 1 hour straight, I could still hold my hand on the top of it. And with an inch or so clearance, there is absolutely no chance of it catching fire, let alone overheating...The amount it saves you in wiring is worth any disadvantages - if any. The only slight issue that could be classed as a disadvantage is I have to ensure that it isnt visible from the back window when the seat is pushed forwards (so I always leave the seat all the way back).

[EDIT] just read your post properly (just got back from the pub ... oops ;)) - if you're looking for a sub amp, probably best putting it in the boot as clarkey says as it wont save you any wiring by putting it under the passenger seat. If the amp required is for the componants, probably best putting it under a seat (to save speaker wire running from the boot to doors) - you'll probably have to put a distribution block under the seat with it though (go for a fused one for safety)
 
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I'm very picky about my sound and managed to spend a shade over £150 on a budget amp and self powered sub.

I bought a 2ch blaupunkt amp brand new (85w pch rms) from ebay in Germany for £55, this lives under the drivers seat and powers the front speakers. There is no room under the seat as my alram is there to, but the amp never gets any hotter than luke warm.

I then bought a Alpine swd-1600 powered sub for £100, this lives under the passenger seat. It's never going to shake your fillings out, but they are highly recommended for providing real punchy front focused bass. I love it, plus I have the bonus of having all my boot space.
 
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Mainly electronica and indie, with a bit of trance and punk....

I mean if you a d&b fan this isn't going to be for you, but I find it provides the perfect amount of warmth to the music for me, and does seem to churn out a suprising amount of bass when asked for it's size.
 
Bigsy said:
Mainly electronica and indie, with a bit of trance and punk....

I mean if you a d&b fan this isn't going to be for you, but I find it provides the perfect amount of warmth to the music for me, and does seem to churn out a suprising amount of bass when asked for it's size.
Click to expand...

Well I mainly listen to the genres you mentioned, but I do like a bit of rap so have you ever tried that through it?

My components can't deal with bass very well and I also get a fair bit of vibration which would be cured by getting either a dedicated sub or miles and miles of sound proofing.
 
No I haven't, but then I think it will generally improve the sound irrespective of the genre.

I find it provides the right amount of bass that I want, and the right kind I like, as it's only 6.5" it's very punchy and precise, I'm not a fan of big wollowy bass. Plus it saves boot space and as it's located under a seat there isn't really anything there to generate annoying rattles.

I bought the sub in the mind set that if it didn't provide the bass I was looking for that it would still be a good addition to my system, I would simply have to buy a bigger sub for the boot and use both. As it was I was surprised how good it was for the price, a bargain imo.... I mean I spent over £150 on some tiny super.fi canal phones on my mp3 player so it puts it into perspective.
 
I got the JBL 75.4 amp for under £100 and it's very good value for money. Mine sits under the passenger seat and the seat actually rubs on the top of it but it doesn't get too hot. Got an 8AWG wiring kit on ebay for under £15.
 
About the under seat mounting, it all depends on the Amp and how much power its pushing out, i've got a Vibe Black Box 1 under my drivers seat with a stack of boxes ontop for my Avic-X1R, even after 4 hours use the amp is only slightly warm to the touch, pick your amp well and it won't get that hot.
 
If you can stretch to £170 then you can get a JBL package consisting of a JBL 75.2 amp, wiring kit and JBL GTO1202D sub (GT4-12 in a box).
They've got it in every halfords i've been in, its just a bit cheaper than if you bought the stuff seperate. I've got this in my clio and for the money i'm not complaining its pretty good actually.
 
The JBL Amp (75.2), 10/12" Sub, Box and Wiring Kit can be had for £125 from many online retailers and is in my opinion the best budget combination :)
 
Motorworld.

I think the JBL kit (12") with wiring kit is £149.99, that amp is enough to run some components aswell, but not budgeted to buy them in the price. So you will have to spend a little more !
 
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